near to Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, Great Britain

Carman Hill-fort: site of hut-circle

See NS3779 : Ancient hill-fort on Carman Hill for the main description of the hill-fort. Click on the end-note title for related pictures, and see the annotated satellite view linked from the end-note as an index to these pictures and their positions in the fort.

Many of the items in this series of pictures have been views of the various walls or boundaries that outline the inner enclosure, the outer enclosure, and the annexe of the hill-fort. However, the present photo shows the site of a hut-circle. In connection with Carman Hill-fort, the book "Archaeology Around Glasgow" (2007) says: "Up to 15 hut-circles – circular banks which indicate the positions of houses – have been identified within the enclosed area of the fort, but these can be difficult to spot. They indicate that a considerable population must once have lived on this exposed site".

The reason why the book says "up to" 15 is that some of the sites can be confidently identified as hut-circles, while others are more uncertain.

The hut-circle shown in this photograph is a grassy area that lies between the purplish foreground tufts of heather and a dry-stone wall that is visible in the middle distance. In order to make its location slightly easier to pick out, the photograph has been framed in such a way that the left-hand edge and right-hand edge of the hut-circle are more or less directly beneath the corresponding edges of the visible water of Carman Reservoir (which is prominent in the background). Look for a green area that is very similar in size and shape to the blue of the reservoir, and which is located directly beneath it, on the near side of the dry-stone wall.

It is hard to pick out the site in a photograph; although it isn't very much easier to spot when there in person, it could be seen to consist of a grassy round depression, surrounded by a low wall (covered in grass; no stones were visible). There was another hut-circle just a few metres to the north of the one shown here, although it was slightly less apparent, and, a few metres further north again, a yet fainter one.

The hut-circle shown in this image is therefore evidently the southernmost of a group of three.

This large hill-fort was identified in 1954 from aerial photographs, and is thought to date from the Early Historic period (Dark Ages): see Link for an annotated satellite view, and Link for other antiquities nearby. The fort lies within what was once the territory of the Damnonii and (later) of the British kingdom of Alt Clut, whose fortress was at Dumbarton Rock: Link

The reservoir, which was officially opened in 1886, is now disused; there is a trout fishery based alongside it. Carman Reservoir was created by damming and enlarging an existing Carman Loch, which was itself artificial: the loch had been created in connection with the nearby Millburn Works; it was also occasionally used for curling.